1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a removable device and a log-in method capable of producing superior advertising effects and offering superior convenience and security.
2. Description of the Background Art
Along with the continued growth in the use of various computers, such as personal computers (PCs), which accompanies the increasing use and progress in semiconductor technology and the Internet, recent years have seen diversification in the methods used for connecting peripheral devices. As a result, a need has been created for a universal peripheral device interface that can be used for any personal computer models and the USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface has been proposed as a specific example of such a standard. Moreover, reductions in the weight and size of various computers and the expansion of their portable (mobile) uses have created a need for removable external storage devices, fueling the growing popularity of USB memory, which is a device that can be easily connected to a personal computer via the USB interface. USB memory has various storage capacities, including 32 MB, 64 MB, etc. More specifically, it is a removable device of the size of a person's thumb that is furnished with a flash memory element inside and, when connected to a USB port (connection port) of a personal computer etc. via a USB connector provided at one of its ends, is recognized as a removable (attachable/detachable) disk drive, etc., and permits access, such as reading/writing, and the like.
Nowadays the use of the Internet is becoming particularly widespread and using rented/borrowed computers other than the one normally used while away from home is becoming a more frequent practice, so that, for instance, in many cases one sends and receives e-mail using a personal computer rented by the hour at an Internet cafe, etc. or borrowed from other people, such as colleagues at the office, customers, family members, friends and acquaintances, etc. Normally, personal computers at such temporary locations do not have data such as one's sent and received e-mail or account information, and the type and version of their e-mail programs (software used for electronic mail) are not the same as those of one's favorite e-mail program. Furthermore, while one may consider setting up one's account information on another person's PC in order to send and receive e-mail, in such a case, privacy problems may arise as a result of forgetting to erase data concerning such account information and sent/received e-mail. Thus, some people resort to recording data etc. concerning such account information, e-mail software, and sent/received e-mail in a USB memory and carrying it along with them.
In other words, not only data, but software, such as e-mail programs, etc., and shortcuts to software can be stored in a USB memory as well, and, in addition to saving and reading data, the USB memory can be used to perform the startup of such software. In addition to reading, it can also be used for starting such software.
In addition, in recent years, in addition to PC-specific peripherals, such as external storage devices, etc., it has become possible to connect a personal computer to digital cameras and various other devices in order to exchange data with the personal computer.
When a new peripheral device is connected to a personal computer, installation of dedicated programs, such as device drivers and supporting software, is required in many cases, and in the past, such programs were provided to the user on storage media such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, etc. In addition, the user has been encouraged to download such programs from a network.
However, the problem was that when users tried to use target data and software stored in a USB memory, reaching them involved burdensome operations, with the burden increasing particularly as the frequency of use of the USB memory increased.
For instance, using data stored in a USB memory required performing a corresponding complex procedure, in the course of which users not only inserted a USB memory into a personal computer, but also performed operations on the OS (Operating System, i.e. basic software) screen by going through sequential options, such as “My Computer”→“Removable Disk”→“Target Operation”, or specified a file name for execution via the keyboard.
In addition to that, when a memory was misplaced or stolen, user data stored on it could be inadvertently read by other people, thereby creating security concerns.
Additionally, installing dedicated programs from storage media was rather troublesome in terms of attaching/detaching the media from the personal computer, and, in addition, bundling them with the product required space, making it more difficult to reduce the size of product packaging and cluttering the users' storage space. In addition, another problem was that, depending on the type of the storage media, it was at times necessary to go through several levels of options in order to get to the target files, making the entire operation burdensome and complicated. In addition, the problem with downloading from a network was that such a method could not be used without a network connection.
In addition, as electronic communications and information represented by the Internet are becoming one of the main tools of mass communication in the present, there have been proposed various advertising methods, such as banner advertising, popup advertising, constantly displayed advertisements of free-of-charge connections, affiliated programs, etc. Such advertising lured the user to advertisements and electronic commerce sites, displaying advertisements whose content was tailored to the user's attributes by identifying the user from the so-called cookie information.
However, in the conventional advertising techniques described above, the exposure of the user to banner and other advertising was completely dependent on whether the user launched a web browser. For this reason, before a browser is launched, advertisements could not be displayed, and, conversely, after starting the browser, the user was already interested in viewing a particular website. Thus, advertisements used to give the impression of being something annoying that users were forced to view, and advertisements such as banners tended to be ignored without stirring any interest, resulting in a paradoxical situation in which advertisers, who forced users to pay attention to them, were instead disliked and shunned.
In addition, since it was, in fact, difficult to effectively relate cookie information to user attributes, advertising based on conventional technology was neither an opt-in scheme, which is based on advance agreement registration, nor an opt-out scheme, in which refusal can be registered in advance, and, consequently, became indiscriminate, making effective advertising difficult.
In addition to the above mentioned problems, when a user borrowed a computer from others, effective advertising was rendered even more difficult because user identification based on cookie information did not achieve its original purpose.
The present invention is proposed to solve the above described problems of the conventional technology, and its object is to provide a removable device offering superior convenience and security. It is another object of the present invention to implement particularly superior level of information security for removable USB devices and related technologies. In addition, yet another object of the present invention is to provide a highly universal control circuit for the present invention. Additionally, still another object of the present invention is to provide a removable USB device and related technologies that can be used under many operating systems without special device drivers.
In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a compact removable device that automatically installs software programs. Also, yet another object of the present invention is to make simplification of system configuration and response speed improvements possible after the installation of programs such as device drivers etc. used for externally connected devices.
In addition, still another object of the present invention is to provide a log-in method and a removable device offering superior advertising effects.